When a medical or surgical procedure is performed, solid waste is typically generated. Generally, this type of waste falls into one of several categories. First, there is conventional trash. This type of waste includes solid articles such as paper, plastics and other packaging material that is not contaminated with tissue or bodily fluids. This waste is typically deposited in white or clear bags. A second type of waste, although not truly “waste”, is the linens, towels and sheets used during the procedure. These linens, towels and sheets, are used for such purposes as stabilizing the patient, draping off portions of the patient, or cleaning up liquids. Often these materials, even those covered in body fluids, can be cleaned, sterilized, and reused. This type of waste is typically deposited in green bags. A third type of solid waste includes solid articles that, during the procedure become coated or exposed to bodily fluids. These articles include disposable wipes, gloves and drapes used at or around the surgical site as well as single use disposable medical instruments. Post use, these articles are disposed of in a manner that ensures the biological material they carry does not serve as a source of infection. It is also important to prevent contamination of medical personnel and the medical facility when handling or transporting this waste materials. Often, this material is called “red bag” waste because it is typically deposited in specially marked red bags. A fourth type of solid waste is radioactive waste typically deposited in yellow bags.
During the course of a procedure, solid medical waste is deposited in the corresponding bags secured to portable carts in the operating room or other space in which they are generated. In some medical facilities, separate carts are provided for collection and storing the different types of medical waste as described above. The circulating nurse or other individual responsible for initially disposing of the waste, initially categorizes the waste and places the waste in the appropriate bag on a cart. When a bag containing either conventional waste, red bag waste, or radioactive waste is at or near capacity, it is sealed. At that time, the bag is transported to a loading dock for eventual transport to a waste processing facility. Green bag waste is transported to a processing facility where the linens, towels and sheets are cleaned and sterilized for reuse.
With the advent of packaged sterile goods, the amount of solid medical waste generated has increased. This is particularly true of packaged sterile equipment that takes the place of a reusable piece of equipment, tool, or accessory. The acceptance of packaged sterile goods and new medical technologies and procedures has increased the amount and bulk of materials entering the waste stream. This has also increased the chances of reusable medical equipment inadvertently entering the waste stream. Specifically, budgets for purchasing lost reusable equipment have increased over time due to the reusable equipment that is lost or inadvertently thrown away. When certain high value medical equipment has come up missing, some hospitals have mandated that their workers do physical searches of bags of trash entering the waste stream with hopes to find the lost equipment. This solution is not practical, not desirable and also possesses risks to the workers assigned to find the equipment. One important risk involves the exposure of the worker to biologically contaminated waste when searching the “red bag” for inadvertently lost equipment.
A reusable medical device, due to its service life expectations, contains durable components, many of them metal. As a result, such equipment can be detected with appropriately designed metal detection systems. The metal detection system then alerts the worker that a metal-containing piece of equipment, tool, or accessory has been deposited in a waste bag.
Metal detection systems are available in many different forms and can be used to assist a searcher in finding lost metallic items. Some systems employ a metal detector for detecting metal after the waste bags have been filled with waste. The obvious shortcomings of these systems include requiring workers to maneuver often heavy, full bags of trash. What's more, if metal is detected, the worker must then rummage through a full bag of trash to uncover the item. Many times the item found in the trash was a single use disposable manufactured with metallic components and therefore may have been correctly deposited in the bag after all. For instance, there are several single use disposable items with metallic components like motors or batteries that will be detected. Additionally, the bags are usually tied shut and are difficult to open making the worker's task even more difficult.
Further, it should be appreciated that biological materials can include contaminates and transmit infectious diseases. Accordingly, the individuals handling bags containing these materials run the risk of inadvertent exposure to these contaminates. Also, an appreciable fraction of these biological materials are in the liquid state. These fluids have been known to leak out of a bag during handling. Also, when in the liquid state, these biological materials, and their associated contaminates, have been known to become aerosolized. When this happens, the surrounding environment can become contaminated. This increases the risks of transmission to more persons other than those responsible for handling the bags. These hazards considerably increase when workers search for reusable equipment or other metallic items mixed in infectious or hazardous waste.
Another proposed solution is metal detection at the point of disposal. Known waste carts typically include a barrel for holding the waste bags and a metal detector ring for placing on top of the barrel over the bag. In these systems, when a metal-containing object is discarded, an alarm is tripped requiring the user to look inside the bag for the metal-containing object. As previously described, this is less than desirable during a medical or surgical procedure. If the bag is partially or nearly full of medical waste, the metal-containing article may slip to the bottom of the waste bag when the worker shifts the medical waste in the bag looking for the metal-containing object. Additionally, sterile personnel performing a medical procedure cannot search the contents of the waste containers without breaking sterility.
Since the metal detector ring accumulates dust and biological materials due to the medical detector ring being on top of the barrel and waste bag, the metal detector ring must be cleaned between uses. Also, metal detection on these prior art systems may not be tunable to vary the amount of metallic content that triggers the alarm. Thus, with the increase in disposable medical equipment, tools, and accessories, some of these prior art systems are unable to selectively set alarm conditions and reduce false alarms.
Securing waste bags to conventional waste carts is often cumbersome. Some workers tie a knot in the top of the waste bag to reduce the size of the opening. The bag is then stretched over a hoop of the waste cart to secure the bag to the waste cart. This method is time consuming and not always predictable.
The Applicants' Assignee's U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/980,964, SYSTEM AND METHOD FOR COMPACTING SOLID MEDICAL WASTE, filed 18 Oct. 2007, the contents of which are contained in PCT App. No. PCT/US2008/080170, filed 16 Oct. 2008, published as WO 2009/052291 A1 and US Pat. Pub. No. US 2010/0201090 A1, both of which are hereby incorporated as reference, discloses one alternative system for collecting medical waste and, during the collection process, determining if an article formed from metal is being inadvertently discarded.
However even the above system has disadvantages associated with its use. These disadvantages are associated with how a bag is secured to the frame of the system of WO 2009/052291 A1 and US Pat. Pub. No. US 2010/0201090 A1 and how this system informs medical/surgical personnel that a metal item may have been inadvertently discarded.